The first meeting of the mixed Church-State Commission to discuss the funding of church institutions will be held in January. Msgr. Ladislav Nemet, secretary of the Hungarian Bishops’ Conference, has announced that both the State and the Church have appointed their respective members to the Commission. The Church, reports the Catholic press agency Magyar Kurir, “wishes to express its own concerns about the way of calculating the supplementary contributions to ecclesiastical institutions”. The Bishops’ Conference considers it important “to have lasting guarantees for the funding of church institutions that perform social, cultural or healthcare activities, and that thus fulfil tasks incumbent on the State”. The bishops have also reviewed the results of the year of prayer for the spiritual renewal of the nation, proclaimed on 1st January 2006, pointing out the accuracy of their diagnosis about the social and moral situation of the nation. The year of prayer will be solemnly concluded in the various dioceses in January. The Hungarian Bishops’ Conference has conferred on the veteran Benedictine Father Palcid Oloffson, 90 years old, the “Pro Ecclesia Hungariae” Prize for his “exemplary faith and humanity testified in all circumstances”. Father Olofsson was a military chaplain and teacher in the Benedictine lycée until the spring of 1946, when the Soviet military tribunal condemned him to deportation. In the gulags he never ceased to encourage and comfort the thousands of compatriots and the prisoners of other nationalities. After ten years of exile, not being able to return to his order, he worked as a manual worker. Since the age of 60 he has been auxiliary chaplain of the Cistercian parish of St. Emeric in Buda. He is still engaged in the matrimonial preparation of young couples and in the catechesis of adults; he leads spiritual exercises both in Hungary and abroad. He is often invited to give lectures and talks throughout the country, thanks to his ability to speak to the young.
